Psirat

quote:Originally posted by Matchoo: My wife keeps telling the kids to not laught at my jokes. "It'll only enourage him."

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: Universal Combat Special Edition, ... will basically be like a UCAWA Gold (which I don't plan on doing) but with lots of bits. By "bits" do you mean odds and ends, or ones and zeroes?

I was telling my bud just yesterday that in-game comercials were coming, soon and hard. TV is losing too many viewers to gaming. I'm surprised they aren't scanning your temporary internet files to see where you surf to provide better targeted ads. But as the article says, this is just first generation. Too bad it isn't Microsoft. By the time people realise what's happenning, it will be accepted practice. What I'm dreading are real comercials, cut scenes you can't break out of that will probably start out as product placement ops, but gradually morph into more traditional comercials. Lawyers, Advertisers and Insurance companies. the root of all evil.

Thanks for the replies. Guess I'll spend more time hugging dirt. I've tried practicing with invincibility on, but found that without the threat of immanent death, I just got sloppy.

Yeah, mostly looks good. I'd never noticed that ATA and STA missiles were ineffective, so I can't comment on that. I just upgraded my processor and am looking forward to UC AWA, too. More of my PC upgrades are spurred by 3000AD than anything else. That other games run faster is just a bonus.

Normal procedure 1. Go into Tacops 2. Zoom to target planning. Click on it and choose Observe. 3. Click on planet map several times to zoom in. Get in close to make sure landing zone is not too hilly. (Zoom out by right clicking, or by using 5 on numeric keypad) 4. Once a good spot is found, click on Waypoints, select SC1 under waypoints menu, add a waypoint by clicking Add. By default it is a "Proceed to Next" waypoint. Leave it. 5. Hit Setpos and use the mouse to "set position" or place it on the map. 6. Add another waypoint. Click where it says Proeed to Next and from the menu that pops up, choose Deploy Drone (or words to tha effect) 7. hit Setpos again. Place this one 'bout 5 clicks from prior one. This allows the shuttle pilot time to orient himself before attempting to land. Now, just tell the SC to wayfollow and go about your bussiness. Follow these instructions, and the procedure for retrievng your drones should become pretty obvious. Have Fun!

One of the features that has always excited me about the BC series is the ground combat. The trouble is, I suck. I have a hard time keeping alive when I'm alone, never mind baby-sitting green marines. ( I know, I know, a good commander won't send greenies into combat). The only way I really survive FP combat is if I camp out on top of a structure. I'm assuming not everyone resorts to this. So, I'm looking for advice from you grizzled ground pounders. How do you keep situational awareness and track targets? Sometimes I keep DIE up as I'm fighting, just to get the HUD highlight of a distant marine (and the tactical scanner makes a good cross-hairs). Do you hide on top of buildings, swooping down for a quick kill and returning to the safety of the heights? I know skill has to be earned, but a few techniques could keep me going long enough to earn it.

I would add 2 things: 1. When picking a spot via Tacops, zoom in all the way. Then zoom out a bit, right click and drag on the surface. This will change the angle your viewing from. The point of this is to make sure the terrain is not too rough (this will save you much frustration and damaged shutles). 2. you should create 2 waypoints. The first should be a "Proceed to next" and should be abot 16 KM out from the final landing site. The reason is that this gives the AI time to establish a good approach for the landing.

No thank you! The AI blows me up well enough without a missile like that. It also seems like a long way for a missile to go just to get Jammed at the last minute. Looking for a stand-off ship-killer, eh? I guess I look at my fighters as the long range, jump capable delivery system for my missiles. Too bad about the wet-ware at the helm. Humans go squish too easily.

.... And another thing. This to all you fledgling commanders who wonder why your marines can't get anything right. YOU should fly a shuttle out to whatever God-forsaken S#@$hole you've decided looks good for mining. Set that shuttle down and deploy your own mine. Don't forget to check the shuttle for damage when you rtb. It will give your engineers something to do. All terrain looks pretty flat... FROM ORBIT!!

quote:Originally posted by Cdr_Tane: I gave them the waypoint orders 1) Next WP 2) Deploy Mdrone 3) Halt. I saw them on their way and jumped off on a trading run through some hazardous regions. So, I am monitoring the shuttles occasionally and I notice they are hundreds of kilometers or more from the last way point and they are up high in altitude. I thought even marines could understand a Halt order. A little while later I get a message that shuttle 2 has been destroyed.... I guess it was one of those 'Darwinian' moments. I had a similar experience. A Marine had actually retrieved a full drone , but had gone into a Halt state. I tried to get him to RTB, just so he'd break orbit, but he wouldn't. I hopped in a fighter so I could check on him, and pulled up Tacops as soon as I was in-system. There he was at a very high altitude, flying in little circles. I prodded him with a few more commands, then watched in horror as he plummetted to the earth. Further investigation proved that the drone had been in a very hilly area. I now believe that the shuttle sustained damage during the recovery op, and failed as the poor marine struggled to fulfill my demands. The memorial service is next Tuesday. Please, send no flowers; rather contribute to the PDMW fund (Poor Dumb Marine's Widows).

quote:Originally posted by Wolferz: Instead of using marines to pilot a shuttle, I usually toss the pilots with the lowest AI in them and the missions are completed without much problem and it's good training for the pilots. Bumps thier AI up pretty quick. [/QB]Not a bad idea. My few "smart" marines were pretty fatigued after deploying drones, so I used system engineers to pick them up. They must not get out much because they all took the scenic route (making planetfall about 2000 clicks from waypoint 1; AND they refused to RTB when I tried to pull them out). I actually had to hop into a FC and jump to their system to straighten them out. (Is it just my imagination, or do crewmembers wise up when the captain's near?) I can see it now: Psirat "Shadow, can we talk?" Shadow "Yes sir?" Psirat "Your latest preformance evals have come back pretty low. I'm afraid that until you can get your scores up, you have shuttle duty." Shadow "Nooooooooo!" ((OK, I admit it. I'm bored))

Dude, I think you want to be on your command craft when you dock to repair it. Looks like it's time for another spacewalk, back to your CC. From there you can order your shuttle to Tow you, then Deliver you to the station. I just towed my own butt home tonight. I was out tooling around in a Zenstar, and let the CC run out of gas.

quote:Originally posted by Cc: Gotta drag out that special relativity textbook.. The only thing I remember is that the speed of light 'c' is the same in all reference frames. Yup, that's what more or less causes it to be the physical limit (or rather, beyond the physical limit). If I'm cruising at 99.9999% C, and turn on my headlights, the photons leaving my light are moving at C relative to me, and C relative to my slower neighbors as well. Time and space need to warp to make up for this. Hyperspace is a concept using the postulated "other dimensions" of space, beyond height, width and depth. These "extra" dimensions are needed to explain the erratic behavior of subatomic particles that get from point A to point B without traversing the space in between (or rather, the space that we can detect or conceptualize). In Hyperspace, we are traveling outside of normal space, are able to thumb our noses at C, and can pass through seemingly solid object (pass through their extra dimensional shadow, so to speak). You'd think that whatever technology is used to make a hyper drive could be used to make a "you go away now" weapon, shifting a hunk of matter off into spatial dimensions that it's not equiped to navigate. (I am fervently NOT petitioning for the inclusion of such a weapon in this or any game) Well, I'm sure I have something I'm suppossed to be doing...

" And if I don't make the game available at retail, well, you're screwed I guess." What I love about this guy is his no apologies approach. This is the product; this is how I do it; if you don't like it, find someone else. So many people in general fall all over themselves trying to accommodate every whiner and potential customer, that they never follow they're own will and do what they intended. Most fall into the pit of mediocrity and never get to shine. ( And I got DSL today, so I finally have a connection that could download a BC game. )

Just jumping on the bandwagon here: Isn't it refreshing to play a space game that isn't afraid of SCALE. I use my approach times when docking at a station to get external views. Some of my favorite shots in SciFi movies are approaches that give you a feeling of the sheer immensity of what you're seeing. Now, I play these scenes. "Space is big. Really big." -Douglas Adams

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: quote:Please, all I want is to know whether or not the only single player campaign is a commander career and if there is a tutorial mission.Just like it says on the box, in the manual, on the patch downloads page, on the boards etc etc [/QB] Geez, man. Your brutal. Still, I suppose if you're point continues to elude someone, it's time to resort to blunt objects.

quote:Originally posted by Cartmanbeeps: if you take away the relism (which happenes when you cheat) then its not much of a sim anymore. Is it? Its just doomsday. While I agree cheating in multiplayer is odious, I can't see the harm in anyone doing anything they want in SP. Morrowind is a perfect example; I used the editor to add interesting spells and artifacts, to flesh out the world. My son (11) used it to make a kick arse sword so he can kill everything. I had fun. He had fun. No harm. In BCM, I always played in debug mode to get time compression (OK, I got corrupt games too. My own fault and I don't whine about it) I also had Fleet C&C in that mode (and the ability to destroy any target, etc.) I almost never used the C&C, only to "request" escorts occasionally, or to flesh out a battle. In short, to make things more fun, as I defined fun at any given instant. To me it's ludicrous to criticize how anyone chooses to play when they're playing by themselves. Maybe it's because I'm definitely a Role-Player. To me it's more about a good session of "make believe" then proving my ability to myself or anyone else.

quote:Originally posted by mikegday: If you are really short on space you can also use any vehicles and the transporter(if you are careful). Engineer: The Reactor Core's going critical, Cap'n. Captain: Replace it with that spare we bought last time we docked at GHQ! Tac Officer: Er... Captain, remember that cargo pod that beamed down to the Insurgent Starbase with the Strike Team...? Captain: I'll be in shuttle one. Engineer: Perhaps we should pull those RCU's out of her hold, just in case.

Thanks a lot, man, but I do that. At first I thought it was the terrain that was scaring them, but it has slowly dawned on me that it happens every time. I know my install of the game is clean. This leads me to believe that I have bigger problems. Rebuild my system to play UC? Hell yeah! (that, and if I've got bigger problems, then I've got BIGGER problems, and they won't go away by themselves.)

Still Wonky. Fresh install to the default directory (normally, I put games on a second HDD). Freshly downloaded patches. Same screwiness. I've also noted that my shuttles refuse to deploy mdrones till I zoom in on them in Tacops ("Uh-oh. The Boss is looking! Back to work.") If my obsessions get the best of me, I'll put a second, fresh install of XP on my box to see if that helps. Since I'm alone with these symptoms, it's got to be my OS or my hardware. I DID upgrade system board, video card and RAM before buying UC. Had to.

quote:Originally posted by BombFox: If im ever in the SOL system needing repairs I find its a good use of time to land on Mars and deploy yourself in an OC and go dune jumping. If im feeling competitive I put Resnig and some of his stupid marines into other OC's and set a circular course of waypoints around the CC and then challenge them to a 15 lap race around it That's just plain old COOL.

If I'm damaged in a way that I don't feel like travelling, I like to use repair time to train my ground troops. I park next to Wraith or GCHQ (after getting parts as described above), and do some quick hit and runs on enemy bases via teleporters, so you can pull them out quick. I guess you could hop in an interceptor and take the boys out on patrol to train Pilots, too.

Well, I uninstalled, deleted the game directory and reinstalled with no joy. Then, I uninstalled BCM & UC, deleted both game directories, installed just UC, patched to 2.00.00 and tested, then to 2.00.12 and tested. Not actually seeing the marines in either version, and I discovered that it doesn't matter what starting base I choose. The marines show up on my priority list, but not in the game world. I started a ROAM campaign at Earth starbase to test. When I tried to Zoom to the marines in Tacops, I just Zoom to bare ground on the base. Is anyone else experiencing this? I'm suspecting my patch download may be corrupt. I'm on dial-up. I'll download fresh patches via broadband tomorrow and see if that changes anything. PS- one more piece of weirdness. I get 2 messages about marines. Half the marines on my list are Ter/Ins, the other half Ter/Mil. This consistent wether I'm Mil or Ins. Wonky

Will do. COOL! That means I may be tooling around Mars with my own squad tonight!